Improvement in brand for canceling-stamps



'UNITED STATEs PATENT OEEIoE.

AMOS D. OWEN, OF THORNTOWN, INDIANA.

IMPROVEMENT IN BRANDFOR CANCELlNG-STAMPS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 103,919, dated June 7, 1870.

To all 'whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AMos D. OWEN, of Thorntown, in the county of Boone and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Canceling-Stamp; and I do declare that the following is a true and accurate description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, and being a part of this specication, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of my device, showing it in operation. Fig. 2 is a perspective, showing the same ready for use.

Likeletters indicate like parts in each ligure.

The nature of this invention relates to the construction of a stamp-canceler, by means of which stamps of all kinds may be so effectually canceled that there will be no possibility of their being used a second time, while at the same time it Will operate as a post-office and date stamp.

The invention' consists in a wick or gas tube provided with a sleeve, the outer end of which is closed, and forms a cancelingstamp, so arranged that the stampcanceler may at all times be so heated as to scorch and deface the stamp upon which it strikes; and, in combination with such tube and sleeve, an. oilfboX, which supports said tube and sleeve, and a bed-piece upon which the stamp to be canceled is placed.

In the accompanying drawing, A represents a boX, which is designed to contain oil, and Whose top forms a support for the working parts of my device. From this top springs upward, in a segment of a circle, a Wicktube, B, the lower end of which `is secured in the manner of a lamp-tube to and over an opening in the top of the box. The tube describes a little more than a quarter of a circle, its outer end stopping at or opposite the opening a in the sleeve-arm O.

The sleeve-arn O is of the same shape as the wick-tube, but much larger in circumference, and it is pivoted by means of the braces E to the top of `the oil-box, midway between the base from which the Wick-tube springs and the bed F, upon which the stamp is placed when it is to be canceled. To the end of this sleeve-arm O is secured, in any convenient manner, the plate D, upon the face of which is cut a post-oflice or other stamp, so arranged in the ordinary manner of constructing similar plates that the dates mar be readily changed.

The plate D being arranged in place, and a Wick, being inserted in the box and drawn through the Wick-tube, is lighted through the opening a, which is then closed by means of the slide b, the liame deriving oxygen for its sustenance through suitable openings c near each end of the sleeve-arm, While small orifices through the die-plate D create a draft, which causes the heat evolved by the iiame to heat said die-plate to a scorching or branding heat.

The stamp being laid upon the bed F, the operator compels the sleeve-arm forward by means of the 'handle or thumb-piece H With a quick movement, until the die or plate D impinges against the stamp, when the operator releases the thumb-piece, and the spring I forces the sleeve-arm back to its original position. The stamp, upon examination, will be found to have burned or scorched upon it the impress of the plate or die.

Where gas is employed for luminatin g purposes, a small gas-pipe, with suitable burner, may take the place ofthe wick-tube, wick, and oil.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The wick or gas tube B, in connection with the sleeve-arm C, when constructed, arranged, and operating as and for the purposes described.

2. ln combination, with said tube B and sleeve-arm G, the oil-box A, when constructed and operating for the purposes herein set forth.

AMOS D. OWEN. Witnesses: t

SAM. J. SPRAY, H. F. EBERTS. 

